Cabinet 16: Contested Authorship

This incomplete Middle English translation of Jean de Meun’s and Guillame de Lorris’ Le Roman de la Rose was first attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer by William Thynne in 1532. Existing in a single manuscript, Glasgow Hunterian Library MS Hunter 409, the attribution to Chaucer is uncertain. Of the three existing fragments, the first uses Chaucer’s language and style and is often accepted as his early work. The second is written in a northern dialect of English and is rejected, and the third part is closer to Chaucer’s style but is also usually rejected.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Romaunt of the Rose, illustrated by Keith Henderson and Norman Wilkinson (London: Chatto and Windus, 1908) Special Collections PR 1888 LP55